COMMUNICATION 



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COMMISSION[RS OP THE CENTRAL PARI, 



KELATIVE TO THE 

Impeovement of the Sixth and Seventh Avenues, eeom 
THE Centeal Paek TO THE Haelem Rivee ; the 

LATmG OUT OF THE IsLAND ABOVE 155tH StEEET ; 

THE Deive feom 59th St. to 155Tn St., 

AND OTHEE SUBJECTS. 



)>■ 



ANDRENA/ H. GREEN, 



Comptroller of the Park. 




NEW YORK : 

WM. C. BRYANT As CO., PRINTERS, 41 NASSAU STREET, CORNER OF LIBERTY. 

1866. 



•^. 



To THE Board of Commissioners of the Central 
Park : 

The Legislature of the State, at its last session, 
conferred powers and iniposed duties upon the Com- 
missioners of the Central Park, respecting territory 
within the city of New York, outside of the limits of 
the Park, that are both responsible in character and 
difficult of execution. The subjects comprehended 
in this Legislation, are 

1. The changing of the grade of more than a mile 
and a half of the 8th avenue, from 59th to 93d streets. 

2. The improvement of the 6th and 7th avenues, 
from the Park to the Harlem river, making together 
over four miles in length of way. 

3. The laying out of the streets and roads, public 
squares and places on that part of the Island above 
155 th street, and a drive from that street to the 
intersection of 59th street and 8th avenue, a distance 
of over five miles. 

In July last, the Board disposed of the first of 
these subjects, that of changing the grade of the 8th 
avenue, by approving the grade as provided by the 



law from 83d to 93d streets, and as amended by the 
consent of the majority of owners of fronts' on the 
opposite side of the 8th avenue, between 81st and 
83d streets; by establishing a grade from 77th to 81st 
street, between the Park and Manhattan square, by 
approving the grade prescribed by the law, from 72d 
to 77th street, and by rejecting the grade indicated 
in the law, from 59th to 72d street. 

At a subsequent date, the Board, by consent of the 
owners of a majority of the lineal feet of the opposite 
fronts on the west side of the 8th avenue, established 
a grade somewhat differing from that proposed by the 
law, between 59th and 69th streets, and between 75th 
and 79th streets. A profile of these grades as fi^nally 
adopted by the Board, has, as required by law, been 
filed in the Street Commissioner's office. 

The result of this action will undoubtedly improve 
the avenue, at a large expense to the city. The out- 
lay from the Park fund required to reshape its border 
along the entire length of the change of grade, at 
some points involving important alterations in the 
surface of the Park, will also be very considerable, 
and with all this additional outlay it will not be prac- 
ticable to produce as agreeable effects on the west 
boundary of the Park as now exist there. 

In consequence of this change of grade, the larger 
portion of the wall now constructed along the 8th 
avenue must be taken down and rebuilt, and when 
the grades of the transverse roads are adapted to those 



of tlie avenue they will be somewhat less convenient 
than at present 

It is not in the power of this Board to determine 
when this work shall be completed, as its execution 
is committed to the Street Commissioner; it is very 
desirable that it should proceed without delay. . 

^s to the second of the above enumerated sub- 
jects, the impr(»vement of the 6th and 7th avenues, 
matters at this date stand thus : 

The necessary petition to the Court for widening 
6th avenue has been signed, and is now in the hands 
of the Corporation Counsel, to take the proper mea- 
sures for opening the avenue of the proposed additional 
width ; until the report of the Commissioners is pre- 
pared this Board will probably have no further duty 
to perform respecting it. 

With regard to the 7 th avenue, public notice to 
owners interested has been given in the newspapers 
of a proposed change of grade of the avenue from 
110th street to 135th street, and of fixing the grade 
from 135th street to the Harlem river. The grade of 
the avenue was, several years since, established up to 
135th street, beyond that no grade had ever been fixed. 

Where the grade is fixed, the law seems to require 
the assent of two-thirds of the owners of frontage on 
the avenue to change it. 

As the grade is susceptible of improvement, with- 
out much additional expense, it was thought best to 
take the necessary proceedings to effect the requisite 
change. 



After diligent efforts, the necessary assent of two- 
thirds of the owners interested was obtained, in such 
form as to authorize the Board to modify the grade 
as shown by the map herewith submitted, or in such 
other form as it may deem best. Notice has been 
given to occupants of the avenue to remove their 
fences and plantations from the ground of the avenue. 

Having acted upon this question of grade, the next 
thing is to determine the character of the surface of 
the avenue and upon the method of its improvement. 

Three plans, numbered 1, 2, 3, are submitted here- 
with, each indicating a method of surface improvement 
differing from the other. On the adoption of a plan 
for this improvement, the mode of sewerage, the lay- 
ing of the gas and water pipes, and the actual grading 
of the avenue will be in order. 

A very heavy rock cut, at the north end of the 
avenue, extending more than half a mile, and of a 
depth of from one to forty feet, will necessarily render 
the work of grading the avenue very expensive. 

There has been some question as to the depth that 
this rock cutting should be done ; an elevated grade 
at this point of the avenue will be much less costly, 
but it is believed the lower grade will better subserve 
the convenience of travel, add to the appearance of 
the avenue and be much better adapted to the situa^ 
tion of the adjacent property. 

On the lower grade, the excavation will amount to 
about 465,000 cubic yards, of which 308,000 will be 
of rock and 147,000 of earth — the higher grade will 



involve 101,000 yards less excavation, tlie most of 
whicli is rock. 

The work must, it seems by the law, be done by 
contract and let to the lowest bidder after public no- 
tice — a method of doing the work which may lead 
to delays and inconveniences that cannot be, by any 
written stipulations well guarded against, especially 
if any unreliable contractor, or one who would pur- 
posely make trouble, should get the work. It would 
perhaps be well for the Board to consider the pro- 
priety of obtaining an amendment to the existing law, 
so that it shall not, in this work, be strictly confined 
in awarding the contract to the lowest bidder, but 
be left free to do the work partly by contract, and 
partly by days' work, as circumstances may deter- 
mine to be best. 

Some years since a plan for improving this avenue 
(No. 1) was laid before the Board, and has, from 
time to time been examined by property owners 
along its line. It contemplates a bridle-road or horse- 
back ride of thirty feet in width through the centre of 
the avenue. . 

It may be questioned whether such a ride, which, 
to be at all agreeable, must be made of soft and 
yielding material, is well adapted to the peculiar cir- 
cumstances of this avenue, being intersected as it is 
at every 200 feet by cross streets. These crossings must 
be of material sufficiently hard to sustain the heavy 
traffic passing from one side of the city to the other. 
If the road is completed on this plan, it will present a 



space of 60 or 100 feet, according to the width of the 
cross street, of hard material, followed by 200 feet of 
soft material, an alternation, it is believed, that will not 
be agreeable either to rider or horse. It is especially 
desirable that a bridle-road should be so arranged as 
to admit of rapid riding without danger. It would 
be difficult to obtain this characteristic in a road 
crossed at intervals of 200 feet by vehicles of all 
sorts and by the passage of pedestrians. The writer 
recollects no prominent instance of a road of this 
sort so frequently intersected by lines of cross travel. 

In the freedom from danger of collision, lies much 
of the satisfaction of a ride on horseback ; the con- 
trast is easily seen by a rider as he leaves the 5th 
avenue and enters upon the Ride of the Park, which, 
for miles, is unimpeded by intersecting travel. 

Instead of a bridle-road, a space of 20 feet through 
the centre of the avenue might be occupied by a 
grass plot or shrubbery ; both of these arrangements 
however are objectionable, because they tend to limit 
the carriage accommodations of the street ; they ob- 
struct, under the best treatment, to a certain extent 
the facilities for those passing recognitions by the oc- 
cupants of carriages going in the same or different 
directions that add so much to a city pleasure drive. 
The rows of trees placed in the centre of the avenue 
will add much to its beauty, and will furnish shade in 
one-third the number of years that will be required 
if the trees are confined to two lines, one at each 
curb. Either of these modes of arranging the avenue 



will be quite likely to result in the carriages going 
forth, taking one side of the avenue and those return- 
ing, the other — the two being separated by the trees 
and the bridle-road or green, and while, by pruning 
the branches for a sufficient height from the ground, 
opportunity could be given to see across, yet the 
distance would be too considerable to admit of ready 
recognitions by persons travelling in different direc- 
tions. 

Such an arrangement limits the carriageway much 
more than the actual width of the road or green, be- 
cause, in practice, carriages do not generally drive 
quite up to the curb^ but keep off a sufficient distance 
for safety ; any fixed structure, such as a post or mo- 
nument in a street, not only occupies its own space, 
but a space on all sides of it is rendered unavailable 
by the universal disposition of drivers to allow a 
sufficient distance to ensure safety. Practically, a 
street 40 feet wide will not accommodate more than 
three lines of carriages when moving at a tolerable 
rate of speed, though five lines of carriages, standing 
still or driving slowly, can be accommodated in its 
width. 

The 7th avenue is established by law (the Board 
having no discretion on the subject of the width of 
the avenue) 150 feet in width ; Broadway, below 
Grace Church, is about 80 feet in width, the carriage 
way varying, but being about 40 feet. 

The ordinances of the Corporation allot, in streets 
of 60 feet wide, 15 feet on each side for a sidewalk, 



8 

leaving a carriage way of 30 feet, in streets of 
100 feet in width, sidewalks of 20 feet wide on each 
side, leaving the carriage way 60 feet ; and in streets 
of over 100 feet in width the sidewalks are restricted 
to 22 feet. 

The ordinances also provide that cellar doors shall 
not be constructed which extend more than one- 
twelfth part of any street, or more than five feet into 
any street, or stoops or steps extending more than 
one-tenth the width of any street, nor more than 
seven feet. 

In the 5th avenue the court yard, steps, stoops, 
&c., occupy 30 feet, or nearly one-third of the whole 
width of the street, so that a public way of 100 feet 
in width has been reduced to 70 feet for all classes of 
travel, and if other obstructions, such as lamp posts, 
hydrants and trees are taken into account, it is re- 
duced to 65 feet in width for side walks and car- 
riageway. Now Avhy is so much land taken from pri- 
vate owners at great expense for a public thorough- 
fare, and then, immediately allowed to be occupied 
by private structures that obstruct and preclude its 
being nsed as a thoroughfare? why take and pay 
for 100 feet, and immediately proceed to donate 
one-third of it to private parties ? why not as well 
originally take but two-thirds of the land and for- 
bid the use of any of it by private owners ? 

In improving this avenue, there is an opportu- 
nity to effect a reformation in this most objection- 
able practice, that has become well nigh universal. As- 



suming that the Board has the power, might it not, 
with propriety, preserve the whole width of the 
avenue for public use ? Perhaps such an innovation 
upon the established custom of the city in this re- 
spect would not be favorably regarded, and might 
be opposed by property owners. It may be urged 
that if owners are allowed to place their stoops, steps, 
areas, bay-windows, &c., in the street, it does much 
to ensure an even, uniform building line for the fronts 
of houses, and that if each proprietor were required 
to build his steps &c. on his own ground instead of 
in the street, the diversity of these appendages 
to the houses would probably result in an irreg- 
ular appearance of the house fronts on the street ; 
as they are not built very high, the light and air of 
the street are not much interfered with by them, 
though the way of street is. There is, however, now 
no law requiring one to build the front of his house 
precisely on the street line ; it may be set back any 
distance on the lot. Custom and appearance, and 
the desire to make the most of the lot, generally 
induces the occupancy of the ground up to the 
building line, and so it would be if these appendages 
were built on the lot instead of the street. 

This disposition of private owners to encroach on 
the public domain had some justification in times 
when cities were places of refuge, confined by encir- 
cling walls, within which populations sought refuge 
from nomadic hordes that ravaged the adjacent 
country. Every foot of space within the costly de- 



10 



fensive walls was required, narrow streets were the 
consequence, and even the small space comprised 
in the limits of the streets was encroached on by 
private dwellings. The brief accounts that remain 
of the internal economy of ancient cities, show that 
the dispositions of private persons to encroach on 
the public streets was much the same as at present. 

In ancient Athens the streets were crooked and 
narrow ; a stranger, says Dica^archus, suddenly view- 
ing the city for the first time, might doubt whether 
it waSj in reality, the city of the Athenians. The 
upper stories of the houses frequently projected over 
the streets; stairs, balustrades, and doors opening 
outwards, narrowed the path. Themistocles and 
Aristides, in co-operation with the Areopagus, effected 
nothing further than to cause that projections should 
no longer be built over or into the streets, and this 
regulation was maintained in later times. The propo- 
sitions of Hippeas and Iphiciades, for taking down 
such parts of buildings as projected over or into the 
public streets, were not carried into execution, be- 
cause their object was believed to be not the 
improvement and embellishment of the streets, but 
extortion. The narrow and crooked streets of Rome 
were still more confined above, by projecting open 
balconies from the upper stories of the houses called 
Maeniana, from Maenius, who invented them to 
accommodate the spectators of the processions in 
the streets below. 

This subject should be carefully considered before 



11 

deciding upon the plan of the avenue, as the conclu- 
sions of the Board in this case, may be a guide for 
its action respecting streets and avenues to be here- 
after laid out. 

If the bridle-road, trees and grass, are omitted 
from the centre of the avenue, the question arises as 
to the width to be devoted to the carriage-way, to 
the sidewalks, to the court-yards, steps, stoops, &c. 

If we allow eighty feet for a carriage-way, twenty 
feet for each sidewalk, and fifteen feet for court-yards 
on each side, the whole one hundred and fifty feet 
will be taken up. This arrangement is shown on 
plan No. 2. 

If the grass space between the carriage-ways, and 
two rows of trees remain, we can save much in space 
by preventing stoops, steps, &c., from intruding at all 
within the limits of the 150 feet in width, as shown 
by plan No. 3. Other suggestions varying the detail 
of the plan can better be shown in drawing. 

Something of the effect of setting back the houses 
from the street line may be seen in the 4th avenue, 
between 18th and 19th streets, where the houses 
stand back about 50 feet from the avenue. London 
Terrace, in 23d street, affords another example of 
the same style of improvement. A clumsy effort at 
adorning an avenue by trees and shrubbery in its 
centre may be seen in the 4th avenue, on Murray 
Hill, between 39th and 40th streets. In this case, 
the plan was to have the sidewalks 22 feet wide each; 
the carriage-ways 28 feet each ; and the plat 40 feet 



12 

in width, in executing it, tliese dimensions were 
somewhat changed. No one can look at this with- 
out observing the cramped and unsatisfactory aspect 
it gives to the carriage -road. This would be, to some 
extent, lessened by omitting the iron and stone fence 
that encloses the shrubbery in the avenue. 

In my judgment, the sidewalks should not (which- 
ever plan be adopted) be reduced below 20 feet in 
width : 30 feet would be better. This avenue is 
likely to form part of the great drive of the city, it is 
important that special conveniences be given to the 
drive-way, that it be spacious and convenient, and 
wear as much of a rural aspect as is practicable. 

To facilitate comparison, a few examples of the 
width and mode of laying out the streets of other 
cities are given. 

The Avenue de I'lmperatrice, leading to the Bois de 
Boulogne, is bordered by continuous gardens; inside 
are carriage-roads, and beyond, gardens and alleys. 
Its width, 429 feet, comprises the following ways; 

Carriage-way 50 feet. 

Footpath, on one side 36 " 

Horsepath, on the other side 36 " 

Grass and slirubbery 87 " 

" « 87 " 

(Iron Railing.) 
2 small streets, on each side of which four 

sidewalks are 20 feet IG " 

(Iron Railing.) 

To hne of houses 36 " 

<' " 36 " 

Total 429 " 



13 



The width of the x\venne :N'enilly is 231 feet. 

" " Avenue Vincennes 231 " 

" " new and fashionable Boule- 
vard Malsherbes 1G5 . " 

The older Boulevards vary much in width, but nowhere 
are they less than the preceding. 

It would be interesting, did space allow, to exam- 
ine the history of the modes of use of streets in cities ; 
they change as population increases. Streets were 
first made without any division into the carriage- 
ways and foot-walks, and were used by men and 
animals of burden, without any distinction. There 
are to-day, in many cities of Europe, streets having 
no sidewalks, and the foot passenger finds his way 
among the beasts and the filth of the kennel. 

The dangers and inconveniences of this indiscri- 
minate mixture of travel when carriages were intro- 
duced, led to a distribution of travel and traffic. To 
beasts of burden and vehicles were alloted one line 
of the way, and to pedestrians another, and finally in 
crowded streets, as in Broadway to-day, pedestrians, 
for convenience, arrange themselves in currents of 
travel, those going one way taking one side of the 
walk and those going the other taking the other side 
of the same walk. Travel has thus arranged itself 
into the highest degree of convenience. 

Less than two centuries since the streets of London, 
if paved at all, were so imperfectly paved that the 
occasional wheeled carriage that passed through them 
was very likely to get fixed in the mire. From a 



11 



mutual intention to avoid the mud thrown towards 
the foot passage, quarrels often arose between pedes- 
trians as to which should " take the wall" or the side 
of the walk most remote from the carriage way. Ef- 
forts to avoid exposure to the contents of the gutter 
gave rise to the still existing custom of giving to 
ladies the inside of the walk. 

The sewerage of the avenue, as the law stands, it 
is claimed, is under the jurisdiction of the Croton 
Board. The width of the avenue will require two 
lines of sewer pipe, and as but few of the main 
sewers to the river in the cross streets are yet con- 
structed, the question of disposing of the sewerage 
and surface water will for a long time be a trouble- 
some one. 

The formation and material of the surface of the 
road-way and walks is also a specially interesting ques- 
tion. A road- way of gravel somewhat similar to the 
Park roads or of some pleasant material for travel will 
be preferred by the public, but it must be remembered 
that it will not be practicable to exclude from this 
avenue the heavy traffic that will, during the process of 
excavating cellars and building up this neighborhood, 
take the best road to be found ; nor after it is built 
up will it be practicable to exclude heavy teams with 
supplies for the residents, or crossing the city. This 
will necessitate ultimately a road more compact and 
capable of sustaining the wear and tear of the ordin- 
ary traffic to which our streets are subjected. In an 
unbuilt neighbourhood the first street opened for use 



15 

is, before it is thoroughly settled, required to sustain 
the haulage of the materials of filling and excavation 
and of timber, brick, &c., for building, and the result 
of this is that the superstructure of the street is 
ruined before the vicinity is fairly populated. What- 
ever road surface may now be adopted, it is probable 
that but few years will pass before a thoroughly well- 
built macadamized or Telford carriage way, completely 
drained, or a pavement will be required. The Rue 
Neuve des Petits Champs of Paris, is being constructed 
with a surface of asphaltic composition which is said 
to operate very well, but is too expensive for general 
use. Sidewalks are also there made of asphalt : 
whether this material will prove favorable in our cli- 
mate is not yet fully determined, though experiments 
have been made. Although this material has been 
tried in this country, it might be well, before the road- 
way is made, that further enquiry be made as to its 
adaptation to this climate ; there is abundant time 
for it before the excavation and filling for the road- 
way is completed. 

The Nicholson pavement, composed of asphalt or 
coal tar, gravel and wood, has been, for several years, 
tried in Chicago on some of the most severely travel- 
led streets and found to operate favorably. It is very 
durable, noiseless, pleasant for the foot of the horse, 
and said to be easily repaired ; but the result of pre- 
vious experiments with wood pavements^in this city, 
renders it very doubtful whether any pavement of 
this character will succeed on the climate and soil of 



16 



this island. The order of the whole work should be 
such as to ensure the introduction of the gas and 
water pipes at a stage that will render the upturning 
of the streets unnecessary in the process of laying 
them. Much thought has been given to the investi- 
gation of these subjects, not only with especial refer- 
ence to the appearance of the avenue, but because 
the plan to be adopted for it has close relations with 
the drainage and improvement of a large portion of 
adjacent territory. 

The last of the topics above enumerated, to wit : 
the laying out of the streets on that part of the Is- 
land above 155th Street, and a drive from that street 
down to the intersection of 59th Street with 8th Ave- 
nue involves difficulties and responsibilities that can 
only be fully comprehended after a thorough exami- 
nation of the subject in all its bearings. 

This part of the Island is 83 miles in length 
and of an average width of about three-fourths of a 
mile. Its greatest width is just south of Spuyten 
Duyvil Creek, being there one mile wide. The nar- 
rowest part, a quarter of a mile, is at the extreme 
north end of the Island, near Kings Bridge. It com- 
prises 1,700 acres of land, being a little more than 
double the area of the Park, and is bounded by 155th 
Street on the south, by the Hudson River on the 
west, the Harlem River on the east, and by Spuyten 
Duyvil Creek on the north — the length of shore line 
washed by tidal waters is about nine miles and three- 



1.7 



quarters, and the distance from river to river along 
155th Street about 4,700 feet. 

The surface of this territory is exceedingly varied, 
irregular and picturesque ; it includes the monotonous 
level of the salt marsh, and the rolling pasture, and 
rises at times to a high degree of craggy wildness. 
On the east side from 155th Street up to the High 
Bridge and from thence to Fort George, a distance 
of two and one-fifth miles, the shores are a mass of 
bold rocks, and not readily accessible. Just north of 
Fort George, the eastern spur of the highlands ter- 
minates, and at its foct lies an area of about sixty 
acres of salt meadow, partially covered with water 
at high tide ; from thence to the Spuyten Duyvil on 
the east of King's Bridge Road, the land is generally 
not precipitous, but of irregular surface, with occa- 
sional outcrops of rock, the shores being fringed 
with salt meadow to a greater or less depth. Above 
Tubby Hook Valley, between the hills on the Hud- 
son and King's Bridge Road, a range of land, sur- 
mounted by the residence of John F. Seaman, Esq., 
rises about 100 feet above tide. Close along the 
Spuyten Duyvil, west of King's Bridge Road, the 
ground is generally a salt marsh till we reach the 
' chain of hills on the Hudson, at the extremity of 
which stands an old earthwork known as Cock Hill 
Fort. From this fort the range of hills follows the 
Hudson river down to 155th street, and below to 
■about 65th street ; the descent towards the river 

from the summit of the range is generally very 
3 



18 



rapid, leaving but few opportunities for the con- 
venient passage of vehicles. The principal and only 
well defined opening above 155th street being at 
Tubby Hook. At Fort Washington Point, at the 
grounds of the Deaf and Dumb Asylum, at 155th, 
158th, and 163rd streets, the river may be reached 
by passages more or less precipitous. 

At about equal distances between the Harlem and 
Hudson rivers, a valley is formed between the two 
ranges of hills, commencing near the line of Fort 
Washington. This valley lies generally in a north- 
easterly and southwesterly direction. Through it 
runs the King's Bridge road, now very irregular 
in its grades, and indirect in its lines. A small 
stream rises near the southern point of this valley, 
and running northeasterly finds tide-water at Sher- 
man's creek. Several other rivulets dry in the sum- 
mer, descend from the hills to the river on either 
side. At points on both sides of the valley, the 
clifis rise abruptly and inaccessibly, the character of 
the rock being much the same as that seen on other 
parts of the island : primitive gneiss, mixed with 
granite, hornblende, slate, and mica. Near Kings- 
bridge, the soil changes to a limestone, assuming the 
appearance of a whitish marble, which has been 
quarried to a considerable extent for building pur- 
poses. 

Much of the territory in question is covered with 
wood — the high lands particularly ; the lower por- 
tions being in pasture and arable land — oaks, chest- 
nuts, walnuts, maples, hemlock, cedar, elm, and other 



19 



indigenous trees, forming forests and groves of great 
extent and beauty. 

The soil above the marshes is composed of loam 
and clayey gravel, or hardpan, and much of it is 
quite fertile from long cultivation. 

It is surrounded on three sides by tide-water. Its 
highest point is at Washington Heights, on the 
grounds of James Gordon Bennett, Esq., where the 
hills rise to the height of 271.4 feet above low 
water, being the highest point of land on Manhat- 
tan Island. Near this are the remains of Fort Wash- 
ington, which, with several other redoubts and earth 
entrenchments occupied by the Americans during 
the attack by the British, in 1776, may still be seen. 
It was here that Hassler, in his famous trigono- 
metrical coast survey, fixed one station — the next 
being in the State of Connecticut. The principal 
access to this portion of the island is at present by the 
Kingsbridge road, running through the valley above 
mentioned, to Kingsbridge ; this road was laid out 
in the reign of William of Nassau, about the year 
1695, 84 years after the discovery of the island; the 
bridge over the Spuyten Duyil, as it is called in the 
early records, was proposed about the same date. 
From this road public ways occasionally diverge 
transversely, and frequent private ways lead to the 
residences that are scattered over the territory. The 
10th avenue, having been opened and imperfectly 
worked nearly to Fort George, affords a means of 
access to the more easterly parts of this territory. 
Steamboats and smaller vessels land passengers and 



20 

supplies at occasional points on both rivers ; a small 
steamer runs regularly, in summer, on tlie Harlem 
liver as far as the Century House. The Hudson 
River Railroad lies along the shore of the North 
river, having two depots within this territory, one 
at Tubby Hook, and one at Fort Washington Point. 
The Croton Aqueduct crosses the Harlem river on 
the High Bridge, enters the city near the lands of 
Richard F. Carman, Esq., passes down through the 
land of the late Madame Jumel, and crosses 155th 
street a little west of the Ninth avenue. During the 
present year, a plot of ground of 7,806 acres, be- 
tween the line of 10th avenue and Harlem river, and 
near the High Bridge, has been taken for a new 
reservoir for the supply of this section with water 
by means of pumping machinery. The price at 
which this land has been estimated by appraisers 
appointed by the Court, is $48,000, or over $6^000 
per acre. The main road is lighted with gas to 
Kingsbridge, and several of the cross roads are sim- 
ilarly lighted. 

The land of the island above 155th street is owned 
by about 250 proprietors, in plots varying in size 
from 25 feet lots to tracts of many acres in extent; 
the largest area owned by one person is that of Mr. 
Isaac Dyckman, comprising about 400 acres. Within 
this area, there are three churches, the grounds and 
buildings of the Deaf and Dumb Institute, the Blind 
Asylum, the Juvenile Asylum, the public school at 
Tubby Hook, and the Neagle Cemetery. 

During the past thirty-five or forty years, several 



21 



efforts have been made to get a water way for navi- 
gating vessels to and from the East and North rivers, 
with the view of saving distance in passing around 
the Battery. In 1827, the Harlem River Canal Com- 
pany was incorporated, with power to cut, construct, 
and make a canal from Spuyten Duyvil creek to Har- 
lem river, from and to such points and places as its 
directors deemed most expedient and advantageous, 
and to improve the navigation of Harlem river so as 
to afford to vessels, boats, and other freighting craft 
secure and easy navigation. It does not appear that 
under this charter anything was accomplished. The 
remains of a canal authorized by the Legislature in 
1826, to pass from the entrance of Harlem creek 
across the island to the North river, to any point 
between l>5th and 135th streets, are now to be seen. 
The subject has lately been revived, and, in 1863, the 
Hudson and Harlem River Canal Company was 
chartered, with power to construct, maintain, man- 
age and operate a canal from the Hudson river, at 
the mouth of the Spuyten Duyvil, to the Harlem 
river, and to deepen the channel of either of the said 
rivers. By a subsequent act, the company was author- 
ized to extend its canal to Long Island Sound. This 
will be a most important facility to the river com- 
• merce bound to and from the East, already estimated 
at over 200,000 tons annually, saving in distance 
more than twenty miles of dangerous navigation by 
the already crowded water-way around the island, 
and the time now lost by frequent detentions by 



22 



reason of adverse winds and tides. The canal will, 
doubtless, within a few years, be the means of 
establishing depots on the line of the Harlem river, 
for coal, lumber, building materials, and other sup- 
plies for the north part of the city and the adjacent 
settlements of Westchester county. This company 
has already made its surveys, located its line of canal, 
and acquired a considerable portion of the land re- 
quired for basins and appurtenances. The canal lies 
just along the Spuyten Duyvil valley, and includes 
an old canal crossing the Kingsbridge Road, and 
partially constructed many years since to operate 
a mill for marble savring. A considerable piece of 
land will be left between this canal and the Spuyten 
Duyvil ; the arrangements for crossing it will be of 
much importance to land travel, and affect the admin- 
istration of the commerce of the canal. The channel 
of Harlem river above 155tli street is narrow, vary- 
ing in depth from five to thirty-one feet, and is 
obstructed by the piers for the erection of bridges 
over the river. At low water, extensive mud flats 
are left bare on each side the channel. If this river 
is to subserve the purposes of commerce, it will be 
well to consider at an early day, whether the channel 
may not be advantageously widened, and the ex- 
terior line of bulkhead adjusted for this purpose. 
This is suggested here because of its obvious bearing 
on the location and expense of the continuation of 
the exterior street on the Harlem river, and to make 
provision for an adequate water way, both for con- 



23 



venience of commerce and for the health of the 
vicinity. 

There are now not far from 350 houses on this ter- 
ritory, some of them country seats — spacious, elegant 
and costly. About 120 of these buildings would 
stand in the streets and avenues if the old, rectangular 
plan were carried out. Its population is about 4,000. 
The land, as at present held, generally has a frontage 
on either one of the rivers, or on the Kingsbridge 
road; the larger tracts generally extend from the 
river to the road. The southernmost part of the 
territory is being rapidly subdivided. The exceed- 
ing picturesqueness of this part of the island, the 
varied scenery comprehended within its wide hori- 
zon, and the unrestricted movements of the healthful 
currents of air over the adjacent waters, are among 
the characteristics that have, during the past century, 
rendered it a favorite resort of much of the wealth 
and intelligence of the city ; the occupants of the 
beautiful retreats that now adorn these grounds are 
watching with interest the steady approach of im- 
provements that are pushing towards and will soon 
surround them. 

The tract of which I have presented a very imper- 
fect chorography is that with which the Board has 
now to do. Will it be strange if its proprietors, 
whether of limited areas or of larger acreage, regard 
the exercise of the powers that have been so liberally 
conferred upon this Board with interest, and with 
some degree of solicitude. Each of these owners has. 



24 



doubtless, tis own plans and expectations witli refer- 
ence to liis property — some seeing corner lots in the 
near future, others apprehensive lest their cherished 
retreats should be seized and appropriated by the 
outreaching arms of an ever-unsatisfied city. An ex- 
amination of the whole subject discloses embarrass- 
ments of no ordinary character, in the way of a suc- 
cessful performance of the duties that rest upon the 
Board. In addressing itself to the work of surmount- 
ing them, it will, perhaps, not be uninstructive to 
review, briefly, the fortunes of efforts that have here- 
tofore been made in the same direction. 

At a meeting of the Common Council of the City 
of New York, held Feb. 16, 1807, the following 
Memorial to the Legislature, with a Bill in con- 
formity therewith, was read and approved, and the 
seal of the Common Council ordered to be thereunto 
affixed, viz: 

To the Honorable, the Legislature of the State of New York, in Senate and 
Assernbly convened : 

The Memorial of the Mayor, Alderme'R, and Commonalty of the City 
of New York, in Common Council convened, most respectfully sheweth, 

That the laying out streets and roads in the City of New York, form 
a branch of their duties highly interesting and important. The neces- 
sity of projecting them in such a manner as to unite regularity and 
order with the public convenience and benefit, and in particular to pro- 
mote the health of the city, must be obvioiis in the prosecution of the 
subject, however various and complicated difficulties and embarrass- 
ments exist. The first which naturally presents itself, is a radical defect 
in the power of your memorialists : any regulation however promotive 
of utility, adopted by one Board, unless carried fully into execution, may 
be disregarded or annulled by its successors. There are others equally 
palpable, and of very considerable magnitude. The diversity of senti- 
ments and opinions which has heretofore existed, and probably will 



23 



always exist among the members of the Common Council, the incessant 
remonstrances of proprietors against plans however well devised or ben- 
eficial, wherein their individual interests do not concur, with the impos- 
sibility of completing those plans thus opposed, but by a tedious and 
expensive course of law, are obstacles of a serious and very perplexing 
nature. 

As these evils are continually accumulating by reason of our in- 
creasing population, and the rise of frequent subdivisions of property, 
your memorialists find it necessary to appeal to the wisdom of the Leg- 
islature for relief in the premises. 

Tour memorialists do, therefore, pray that such measures may be 
adopted by your honorable body, as will obviate the difficulties which 
at present lie in the way of public improvements in the City of New 
York, or at least in such parts thereof, as shall appear most susceptible 
of advantage from the interposition of your honorable body. 

The Recorder was requested to forward the preceding Memorial and 
Bill to the Hon. De Witt CHntou. 

On the 3d of April, in the same year (1807), 
the Legislature of the State appointed Gouverneur 
Morris, Simeon De Witt and John Rutherford 
commissioners to lay out streets, roads and public 
squares of such width, extent and direction as to 
them shall seem most conducive to public good, 
and to shut up, or direct to be shut up, any 
streets or parts thereof which had been theretofore 
laid out and not accepted by the Common Council 
within that part of the city of New York to the north- 
ward of a line commencing at the Hudson River run- 
ning through Fitzroy Road, now Gansevoort Street, 
Greenwich Lane, now Greenwich Avenue, and Art 
Street, now Astor Place, to the Bowery Road, 
thence down the Bowery Road to North — now 
Houston Street, thence through North Street to 
the East River. It was, by the Act^ made the 
duty of these Commissioners to "lay out the lead- 



26 



ing streets and great avenues of a width not less 
than 60 feet, and in general to lay out said streets 
and public squares of such ample width as they may 
deem sufficient to secure a free and abundant circula- 
tion of air among said streets and public squares 
when the same shall be built upon," and they were 
" not in any case to lay out any street of less than fifty 
feet in width ;'' they were empowered to make surveys, 
a map of the streets and roads laid out by them, to 
erect durable monuments and to take the elevation of 
the several intersections or squares above high water 
mark. Their plans were to be final and conclusive, 
and they were entitled to receive $4 per day for each 
day they were employed on the work. 

These Commissioners were men of distinction. Mr. 
De Witt was the Surveyor General of the State, and 
Mr. Morris an eminent publicist, and one of the pro- 
jectors of the Erie Canal, was, with others, in 1810, 
appointed to prosecute the business of constructing 
that great work 

It may not be amiss to endeavor, in a few words, 
to bring before the mind something of the condition 
of things as they were at the time these gentle- 
men entered on their work. In the year of their 
appointment Jefferson was President, and Daniel 
D. Tompkins, Governor. The assessed value of the 
property of the city was $24,959,955. The total tax 
was $129,155 09. Far-sighted men began to have a 
large realization of the growing commercial import- 



27 



ance of the city; its population was (1801) 60,489, 
in 1810 it reached 96,373. 

It was ah-eady apparent that New York was to 
take precedence of all other cities of the Continent, 
and various cchemes of public improvement tending 
to its advantage began to be agitated, of which the 
most important were the filling of the lake north of 
the present park, called the Kolck or Collect, the 
building of the present City Hall and the new Alms 
House (lately fronting on Chambers Street in the 
Park,) and the scheme for laying out the streets. 
Public works of the State also began to command 
general attention. 

The war between England and France, soon in- 
volving all Europe, caused a check to the commer- 
cial prosperity of the country. New York was not 
an exception, importations soon ceased, and immi- 
grants were but few. The measures adopted by the 
belligerents affecting the rights of neutrals, the orders 
in council of the British Government, the retaliatory 
measures of Napoleon, gave rise during the first ten 
years of the century to the embargo, non-intercourse 
and non-importation acts, and finally culminated in 
war. 

In 1800, Boston had a population of 24,937; in 
1810 it reached 33,250. Philadelphia, though founded 
sixty-eight years after New York, had, in 1 800, a po- 
pulation of 70,287, considerably more than New 
York; in 1810, 96,287, and was the most po- 
pulous city on the continent for a quarter of a cen- 



28 



tury after the Declaration of Independence, Balti- 
more, in 1800, had 26,514, and, in 1810, 35,538. The 
Alleghanies had not been crossed by any main ave- 
nue of transportation, neither the National Road, the 
pioneer of civilized travel toward the West, nor the 
Erie Canal had been commenced. Robert Fulton had 
just navigated the first steamboat from the Jersey 
shore, opposite the city, to Albany, consuming thirty- 
two hours in the passage. In the same year (I SOT) 
Congress had abolished the slave trade, and the Presi- 
dent recommended the establishment of that most 
valuable work, the National Coast Survey, " for the 
purpose of making complete charts of our coast, with 
the adjacent shoals and soundings." The internal 
land travel of the country was confined to stage 
coaches and vehicles of small capacity ; it was a jour- 
ney of four to six days by the packets to Albany — 
two to three by stage coach. The ferries from the 
city were row boats, barges and lighters, and these, 
with sailing vessels, freighted its commerce. 

At the time these Commissioners commenced their 
work there were very few improvements in the city 
above the New York Hospital. What is now Canal 
street was then a ditch running through Lispenard's 
Meadows, and crossed at Broadway by a stone 
bridge. The custom of each householder cleaning 
the street before his own premises, and that of the 
owner of every tenth house hanging out a lantern on 
a pole on certain nights, had given way, and the 
streets were lighted by oil lamps, few and far be- 



29 



tween ; the sidewalks of Broadway had been but 
a few years paved from Vesey to Murray streets ; the 
Park had just been enclosed with a post-and-rail 
fence. Above Canal street, the laflds were partly 
fenced in lots and fields; and, although the jurisdic- 
tion of the Commissioners commenced in the fields 
far above the settled portion of the city, their survey- 
ors were constantly annoyed by suits for trespass for 
going over private grounds, cutting off branches of 
trees, &c., to make the necessary surveys — showing, 
at that day, a determined opposition to the prosecu- 
tion of any plan for laying out the city. 

These Commissioners were allowed a period of four 
years to complete their work. They filed their re- 
port April 1, 1811, two days prior to the expiration of 
the time when their duty and office expired. De Witt 
Clinton was then Mayor. Messrs. Morris and Ruther- 
ford subsequently received the thanks of the Com- 
mon Council for their gratuitous services. 

The actual laying out on the ground of the streets, 
avenues and places according to the plan and the 
setting of the monumental stones, was afterwards 
committed by the corporation of the city to John 
Randel, Jr., the Surveyor of the Commission, who 
completed a set of maps of the topography of the 
city, that have been, and still are, the source of much 
valuable information, and have been constantly re- 
ferred to for over forty years. 

One of the first objects which claimed the atten- 
tion of the Commissioners was to determine whether 



30 

they should confine themselves to rectilinear and rect- 
angular streets, or whether they should adopt some 
of those supposed improvements by "circles, ovals, 
and stars," whioh, as they say, " certainly embellish a 
plan, whatever may be their effect as to convenience 
and utility;" and the consideration "that a city is to 
be composed principally of the habitations of men, 
and that straight-sided and right-angled houses are 
the most cheap to build and the most convenient to 
live in," determined them in favor of the rectangular 
plan, on which the upper part of the city is now laid 
out. 

The Commissioners endeavored, within the terri- 
tory that was adjacent to the then settled portion of 
the city, where owners had already begun to develop 
their views, to amalgamate their plan with those that 
had already been adopted by individuals. This effort 
they were compelled, after various attempts, to aban- 
don ; in furtherance of what they deemed the public 
interests, they found it necessary to override the less 
expanded views of individual owners. 

In their plan they made provision for a site for a 
large reservoir, for an observatory, a grand parade, 
a public market, and for several public squares. 

They thought it no unreasonable conjecture that in 
half a century the city would be closely built up to 
the northerly boundary of the Parade (32d and 34th 
streets), and contain 400,000 souls. 

This period, completed in 1861, found within the 



31 

limits of the city more than double the prophesied 
number. 

The plan having been filed, it became by the law 
final and conclusive ; and the corporate authorities of 
the city, as well as owners of private property, began 
n-radually to conform in their transfers of land to the 
lines of the streets and avenues laid down upon it ; 
it was the guide to the corporation in working such 
streets and avenues ; and no avenue or street could 
be laid out by the corporate authorities, except as 
shown on the plan, unless Legislative authority was 
given to do so. It soon came to be regarded as a 
srreat convenience. 

Notwithstanding the growing tendency to ac- 
quiesce in its features, an examination of the statute 
books will show that as soon as the city began to 
approach the territory comprehended in the plan ; 
as soon as it was required for actual use and occu- 
pancy, and as early as the year 1814, applications 
were made to the Legislature to change it ; and since 
that year no less than thirty-eight laws have been 
passed for that purpose, so that almost every one of 
the features of the plan, excepting that of the rectangu- 
lar system have been abolished or materially altered. 
So difficult is it even for men of recognized expe- 
rience and observation of public affairs to forecast the 
details of the prospective wants of a growing city. 
These Commissioners, in making a plan for the island, 
appear to have done no more than to indicate on paper 
(for they did no actual work on the ground) the lines of 



32 



certain avenues, streets and squares ; and it is not too 
mucli to say, tliat they carried to an extreme, a sys- 
tem perhaps well enough adapted to the tolerably 
level ground of the lower part of the city. They 
found something similar to it already existing in the 
neighborhood of the Seventh Ward, and they fixed 
it upon irregular and precipitous portions of the 
island, to which it was not at all adapted. A plan 
now in existence dated November, 1803, drawn 
from actual survey by Casimir T. H. Goerck and 
Joseph Fr. Mangin, City Surveyors, shows a laying 
out of the City up to about 20th street. The Com- 
missioners failed to discriminate between those local- 
ities where their plan was fit, and those to which 
its features are destructive, both in point of expense 
and of convenience. 

They designated those ways which run in a north- 
erly direction. Avenues, and those that crossed them, 
streets, and numbered them from 1 to 155. This 
nomenclature has the merit of simplicity and con- 
venience, yet, perhaps, it is not the most efi&cient aid 
to the memory.* 



* The following names of the townships in the -western district of this 
State, were attributed to the Surveyor General De Witt : — Lysander, Han- 
nibal, Cato, Brutus, Camillus, Cicero, Maulius, Aurelius, Marcellus, Pompey, 
Komulus, Scipio, Senipronius, TuUy, Fabius, Orio, Milton, Locke, Homer, 
Solon, Hector, Ulysses, Dryden, Virgil, Cincinnatus, Junius, Galen, Sterling; 
but he denied the paternity of this absurd nomenclature, and credits it 
to the Commissioners of the Land Office, consisting then of the Gov- 
ernor, the Secretary of State, the Treasurer, the Auditor, and the Attorney 
General. 



33 



The subject of sewerage and drainage, and of 
lighting, do not seem to have received any special 
attention. This plan covers that part of the city south 
of 155th street only, except that the 10th avenue 
was continued to Harlem River, which it strikes near 
Kingsbridge. The commissioners were authorized to 
lay out the whole island ; on this subject they re- 
mark, " To some it may be matter of surprise that 
' the whole island has not been laid out as a city ; to 
' others it may be be a subject of merriment that the 
' commissioners have provided space for a greater 
' population than is collected at any spot on this side 
' of China. They have, in this respect been go- 
' verned by the shape of the ground. It is not im- 
' probable thai considerable numbers may be col- 
' lected at Harlem before the high hills to the south- 
' ward of it shall be built upon as a city ; and it is 
' improbable that (for centuries to come) the grounds 
' north of Harlem Flat will be covered with houses. 
' To have come short of the extent laid out, might, 
' therefore, have defeated just expectation, and, to 
' have gone further, might have furnished materials 
' to the pernicious spirit of speculation." 

The portion of the city for which they provided a 
plan was less diflSicult to arrange than the remain- 
ing portion ; the territory below 42nd street is of 
less uneven and rocky surface than that above, if we 
except the Harlem commons and the marshes along 
the water. It is very doubtful whether the rocky 
ridges of the island along the shores of the rivers. 



31 



running, as tliey generally do, longitudinally, should 
be cut by numerous crossing streets, especially wliere 
tlie grades to reach the river must be so steep as to 
render the convenient passage of vehicles impossible, 
and whether the longitudinal streets should not be 
more and the cross streets less frequent. The nat- 
ural indications of the island might have been more 
closely conformed to by the provision of more longi- 
tudinal avenues; they would be much less expen- 
sively made, the public would have been better 
accommodated, for the bulk of city traffic is length- 
wise the island, and property owners would have 
been benefited, in that a lot on an avenue is consid- 
erably more valuable than one on a street. The error 
may yet in some degree be remedied by a relaying 
out of that naturally beautiful portion of the island 
which has not been much built on or subdivided, 
lying west of 8th Avenue, between 72d and 155th 
street. Nor is it yet fully established that, under a 
fair administration of the city streets, it would not 
have been better to have provided alleys in rear of 
all lots, through which the waste of the houses could 
be removed, instead of compelling its offensive pas- 
sage and deposit in the face of the passers on the 
street. The objection has been made that alleys are 
but places to accumulate filth, and that they would 
not be kept clean. This is no more true with respect 
to- alleys than it is to streets, as may be readily seen 
by passing through many of the streets of our city, 
the side walks of which are encumbered with lines 



35 

of contrivances in tlie shape of barrels and boxes for 
the storage of the refuse of dwellings. The modern 
style of building already brings the rears of houses 
inconveniently near to each other on the street 
blocks, and the chief justification of the abolition of 
alleys is, that under a shiftless administration of mu- 
nicipal affairs, if the offensive refuse of the city is 
brought constantly into conspicuous view, it will be 
the more likely to be removed. 

The territory laid out by these Commissioners south 
of 155th street was sufficient to accommodate a lars'e 
prospective population ; it has sufficed up to this 
time, but the increase, of numbers and the tendency 
to build above that street has long demanded a plan 
for that ground, so that the buildings about to be 
erected need not be found out of place when a plan 
is adopted. 

The second effort at laying out this part of the is- 
land was made in 1851, when the Common Council 
of the city directed the Street Commissioner to pre- 
sent a plan for laying out streets and avenues in the 
city, north of 155th street. Johii T. Dodge, Esq., 
then Street Commissioner, appointed Messrs. Edwin 
Smith and Gardner A. Sage, tAVo city surveyors, and 
Mr. Wm. Dodge, Jun., to take the matter in charge 
and to report thereon. These gentlemen made no 
plan, and, beyond a few meetings, accomplished no- 
thing under their appointment, no appropriation having 
been made to enable them to proceed with the work. 

A third effort to obtain a plan for this part of the 



36 



city was made in 1860. The Legislature, in that 
year, appointed a Board of Commissioners, consisting 
of seven persons, all of whom were, it is believed, 
property holders within the district to be laid out. 
Their powers were very ample ; they were to receive 
no compensation. They employed engineers and 
surveyors, and caused an elaborate topographical 
survey and map of the territory to be made, and 
while it does not appear that, during their four years 
of official term, any of the serious and responsible 
questions involved were finally determined, or that 
any streets or other improvements were finally laid 
out, yet the papers of their office show that these 
subjects had been examined and discussed. Their 
expenditures amounted to the sum of $41,236.38, 
and several claims for services are still outstanding. 

By the Act of April 24, 1865, the powers of these 
Commissioners were transferred to the Commissioners 
of the Park. 

This act by which this transfer was made, also 
conferred upon this Board powers still more ex- 
tended — adequate not only to the laying out of 
streets, roads, public squares and places, but to the 
taking of the land necessary therefor, and to the 
regulating, grading and improving of the same. 
The mode in which moneys for these purposes are to 
be raised is also specified in the act. This Board is, 
therefore, invested not only with the powers of the 
corporation of the city, but also those of some of the 



37 



executive departments, with relation to the streets, 
of this portion of the island. 

An act passed a few days subsequently seems to 
place in the Croton Aqueduct Board the power of 
making a plan for sewerage of the whole island. ' So 
far as any territory which this Board has to improve 
is concerned, there can be no doubt by the economy 
of one authority executing all classes of the work, 
that time and money would be saved by placing the 
work of sewering it with this Board. 

It has been well said, that, "next to the genial 
influence of the seasons, upon which the regular sup- 
ply of our wants, and a great portion of our comforts 
so much depend, there is, perhaps, no circumstance 
more interesting to men in a civilized state than the 
perfection of the means of interior communication." 

The chief work that the Board has to do is to make 
a plan of this area that will, when executed, accom- 
modate the future necessities of this portion of the city. 
The ground to be laid out is of an unusually difficult 
formation to arrange on any symmetrical plan ; it 
includes many small proprietorships, the improve- 
ments upon which, already made, or contemplated, 
will necessarily be, to a greater or less degree, inter- 
fered with by any plan that may be adopted. 

It is a work that can only be accomplished, in all 
its details, in course of a considerable space of time. 

By the law, the Commissioners are not required to 
complete the laying out of all the streets, roads, pub- 



38 

lie squares and places before filing maps and plans 
of a portion thereof 

It is for tlie Board to determine wliicli portion of 
the proposed streets shall first be laid out and worked. 
In this the law greatly aids us by placing special 
stress upon the main drive from the north end 
of the 6th avenue or Tth avenue up the Harlem river 
side of the city, and down along the Hudson river 
side of the city, to the entrance to the Park at 59th 
street and 8th avenue. 

The laying out of the ground for and the planning 
of a city is, if done with any large degree of fore- 
sight, a work of great responsibility, involving lib- 
eral consideration of questions of defence, of ap- 
proaches, of climate, including temperature, snow 
and rain fall, and prevailing winds, of the means of 
the daily supply of water and food, of the vocations 
of its inhabitants, and of sanitary regulations, includ- 
ing modes of cleansing and purification of the city, 
of interment, and of the means of movement and 
circulation of its population and property, animate 
. and inanimate. The adoption of a plan presupposes 
its execution ; it should, therefore, be adapted to our 
climatic condition, and to the spirit of our institu- 
tions, and in making it, reference should be had to 
the facilities for maintaining a city laid out in accord- 
ance with it. The execution of any plan will require 
the raising of large sums of money, and, if it is not 
well considered, time and expense will require its 
abrogation, and the substitution of another. We 



39 

need not go off our own island to see lamentable 
results of the want of largeness of ideas in the at- 
tempts that have been made to provide for the wants 
of a great people. 

The process of straightening and widening streets 
in the lower part of the city, where property has ac- 
quired immense value, has been going on for many 
years, and is still going on at a great cost. More 
than forty years ago, Ilarman Street was widened 
from forty to ninety feet, and called East Broadway ; 
thirty years ago. Chapel Street, from Franklin Street 
to Chambers Street, was widened from forty to 
ninety feet, and called West Broadway; twenty- 
nine years ago, Centre Street was widened and cut 
through to the Park. This process will soon com- 
mence in the upper portions of the city. 

The Imperial outlays in improving the city of Paris, 
afford another instance of the cost of providing for 
the growing necessities of modern population after a 
city has been built. 

In looking back to the early history of what 
are now large cities, it is remarkable to see how 
little forethought has been exercised. They are but 
examples on a larger scale of the same insufficient 
provision for future accommodations that we find 
made by individuals in their own establishments. 
Probably not one ordinary dwelling house in ten is 
built at once on a plan that is at all adequate to 
meet the wants of its owner and projector; additions 
shortly succeed its supposed completion. The want 
of pecuniary means and of foresight both influence 



40 



ideas of what is necessary for the habitations of com- 
munities and of individuals. 

With some exceptions on this continent, and few 
in Europe, the cities that have, since the commence- 
ment of the Christian era, attained great extent, have 
been the subjects of gradual accretion, without an 
original, symmetrical plan. As population required 
increased accommodations, the domains of private 
owners were appropriated, or conceded to city occu- 
pancy, by force of the law of values, and they pass to 
city uses, with the schemes of their owners already 
fixed upon them, conforming, in a greater or less de- 
gree, to the existing features of the proximate city. 

The instances of European cities laid out from their 
inception on a symmetrical plan, are generally found 
under a form of government that has the power of 
decreeing with an irresistible authority that overrules 
alike the wishes and the rights of private ownership, 
or that provides from primeval fields accommodations 
for a population to be attracted by the fascinations 
of a court, or the vocations that thrive in its presence, 
or from new currents of commerce. That part of 
Athens only, known as the Piraeus was regularly laid 
out by the architect Hippodamus, probably in the 
time of Pericles. " Kings and potentates have vied 
with one another in embellishing her streets and 
places of resort, and if she presented like modern 
cities, no capacious square or long vistas lined on 
either side with superb edifices, it was owing to the 
inequality of her original site, and the scruples which 



41 

'had spared her narrow and tortuous lanes, after so 
many capitulations." 

In ancient Rome, the temples and palaces were, 
for the most part, planted on the summits of the 
hills, and in many cases surrounded by gardens ; the 
dwellings of the humbler classes were clustered in 
the narrow valleys, were generally built over rows 
of shops, and entered by stairs from Jthe outside ; 
in the height of 70 feet, there were probably from 
7 to 10 stories. The roads were measured from 
the gates of the Servian enclosure, and here began 
the straight lines of their interminable avenues. 
Within the walls no regularity existed, the streets 
may be said to have grown up by mere caprice or 
accident ; following the tracks of the cattle of prim- 
itive antiquity to their pasture and watering places, 
they were narrow and winding. The Forum alone 
of all the public places was regularly designed ; its 
open space nearly rectangular in form, was enclosed 
by paved roads intended for public processions, 
and lined where they approached the base of the 
hills with temples and public edifices. In districts 
where the masses of the population were collected, 
every available inch of ground was seized for build- 
ing, and the want of space was compensated by 
elevation. The Emperor Augustus limited by law 
the height of the houses, and, as is supposed for the . 
purpose of economizing space, the thickness of the 
walls was restricted to a foot and a half. The 
streets, or rather the narrow and winding alleys, 
6 



42 



were miserably inadequate to the circulation of the 
people who moved along or thronged them. Juvenal 
laments the hardships of the poorer citizens of Rome, 
whom he advises to emigrate from the smoke of 
Rome to the little towns of Italy, where they might 
purchase a cheerful and commodious dwelling for 
the same price which they Pcnnually paid for the rent 
of a dark and miserable lodorins:. 

Corinth, after its restoration, "became a centre of 
commerce, art and literature. The beauty of its sit- 
uation, the splendor of its edifices, the florid graces 
of its architecture, and the voluptuous charms of its 
parks and pleasure grounds delighted the stranger, 
whom its commerce had attracted." 

The city of Peter the Great, was founded on a most 
infelicitous site, being near the Arctic Circle, in a flat 
marshy region, and on a river navigated only by 
small vessels ; the soil is such that the foundations of 
the buildings must be made on piles; it is laid out 
with regularity and embellished with squares, its 
streets are comparatively broad, and its buildings 
generally occupying large plots of ground, has 
already attained a rank among cities of the first 
class. 

Where a city is symmetrically built, it will be found 
the work of a single mind or of a single interest, in 
both cases the absolute power, by reason of entire 
ownership, or a common interest, controlling the ter- 
ritory is the first requisite. These circumstances do 
not often occur, and the consequence is that the pro- 



43 



gress of settlement is according to the contrary views 
of individual settlers, or, as is said, tlie habitations of 
men are located by the paths made by the beasts of 
the field. 

An unusual diversion of the current of the world^s 
travel sometimes affords opportunities for rapidly 
building up a city. 

Alexandria, the foundation of which, by Alexander 
the Great, terminated the commercial importance of 
Athens, was intersected by streets runni;g north 
and south, east and west, with its canal, lighthouse, 
regular streets, palaces, exchange, halls of jus! ice, 
temples, theatres, churches, groves, gardens, foun- 
tains and obelisks, and became the centre of commerce 
between the basin of the Mediterranean and Arabia 
and India ; in turn, its decay was completed by the 
change of the track of commerce, caused by the dis- 
covery of the Cape route to the East Indies, and this 
it was that gave impetus to. the great modern cities 
of "Western Europe and blighted the ancient seats of 
commerce. The city of Cordova, under the Moors, 
contained more than 200,000 houses, 1,000,000 in- 
habitants, nOO mosques, and 900 baths. "After 
sunset, a man might walk through it in a straight 
line for ten miles by the light of the public lamps. 
Seven hundred years after this time there was not so 
much as one public lamp in London.'' " In Paris, 
centuries subsequently, whoever stepped over his 
threshold on a rainy day stepped up to his ancles in 
mud." 



u 



Most of tlie cities of our own country have at- 
tained their growth by the same process of gradual 
irregular expansion that has characterized those of 
the European continent. Examples are, however, 
numerous, of cities of an inferior rank proceeding, 
from their outset, on a plan, such as Chicago, Cleve- 
land and Cincinnati, of such rapid growth from im- 
migration or other favorable conjuncture of circum- 
stances as to render it at once apparent to the pro- 
prietors of the land that a considerable area would, 
within a short period, be required for population. 

A common interest of landed ownership and a 
common perception of the most profitable use of the 
land will generally ensure symmetry in the plan of a 
city. Philadelphia is an instance of a peculiarly 
symmetrical city. Penn, early in the settlement of 
the county, selected its site on a formation mainly of 
dry, well-drained gravel, rendering the sewerage and 
drainage easy, and planned the city ; from the first 
he proposed to survey a space nearly as large as that 
now occupied, and which he proceeded to lay out in 
squares with broad rectangular streets on a compre- 
hensive scale. From the peculiarly rocky formation 
of New York, a large percentage of the cost of 
building the city of Philadelphia has been required 
to get the land of the upper portion of this city in a 
condition fit to begin to build upon. 

The City of Washington, at first known as the 
Federal City, was laid out in the last century by 
Major L'Enfant on a plan that time has scarcely 



45 



approved, the idea of pointing fifteen of the diagonal 
streets towards the States, the names of which they 
bear, having in it more of fancy than of convenience. 

Washington, in a letter dated at Mt, Vernon, 
1798, says with respect to the Federal City: 

"A century hence if this country keeps united 
(and it is surely its policy and interest to do it) will 
produce a city though not as large as London, yet of 
a magnitude inferior to few others in Europe, on the 
banks of the Potomac, where one is now establishing 
for the permanent seat of the Government of the 
United States, between Alexandria and Georgetown, 
on the Maryland side of the river ; a situation not 
excelled for commanding prospect, good water, 
salubrious air and safe harbor, by any in the world ; 
and where elegant buildings are erecting and in for- 
wardness for the reception of Congress in 1800." 

Jefferson, then Secretary of State, in a letter to 
Washington dated April 10, 1791, says: 

" I received last night, per Major L'Enfant, a 
request to furnish him any plans of towns I could for 
his examination. I accordingly sent him by this 
post, plans of Frankfort on the Maine, Carlsruhe, 
Amsterdam, Strasburgh, Paris, Orleans, Bordeaux, 
Lyons, Montpelier, Marseilles, Turin, and Milan, on 
large and accurate scales, which I procured while in 
those towns respectively; they are none of them, 
however, comparable to the old Babylon revived in 
Philadelphia and exemplified." 

A glance at the map of New York will show that 



46 

its earlier ] rogress was governed hy the then existing 
temporary conveniences of the growing population ; 
when the public mind became impressed with the 
idea t! a the city was to grow to great proportions, 
a plan was demanded for its future improvement, and 
the public authorities were enlightened enough to 
secure one ; the rectangular plan was adopted, and is 
fixed upon those parts of the island of more regular 
surface, and has also impressed itself upon the cities, 
towns and villages growing up in the vicinity. The 
growing desire to occupy the part of the city above 
155th stre(3t having rendered it necessary that pro- 
vision should be made for the accommodation of the 
class of improvement for which it is fitted, several 
unavailing efforts have been made to locate the lines 
and fix the grades of the streets and roads in such 
manner that improvements may be made without leav- 
ing owners to the apprehension that a change of plan 
would necessitate the destruction or expensive altera- 
tion of completed structures. The ruggedness of 
large portions of the surface has stubbornly repelled 
repeated efforts to fix upon it the rectangular plan 
of avenues and streets. These efforts have, how- 
ever, left their impress, and extensive excavations 
m.ay be seen upon lines of road, that have been, or 
should be, stopped in their course by reason of their 
utter impracticability. 

Two generations have been educated into the sys- 
tem of rectilinear streets; it is difficult to unseat 
ideas to which the public mind has become habi- 
tuated. 



4T 



These considerations, so imperfectly presented, 
will, perhaps, aid in appreciating, to some extent, 
the business in hand, and tend to impress upon the 
Board the importance of the subject upon the prac- 
tical solution of which it is about to enter. 

It will not be expected that I should go much into 
the detail of the intended work. That can be much 
better shown in a plan now in course of preparation. 
A few general ideas are all that can be presented 
with utility, until further investigation furnishes the 
necessary information to enable the Board to dwell 
upon details. 

This territory lies between the city on the south, 
and the growing populations of the villages of West- 
chester on the north and east, and those of the 
Jersey shore on the west. Tidal waters encompass 
it on three sides. Across it passages for business 
and pleasure from all directions must be provided ; 
and these must have direct relation and reference to 
the probable course of the ways on the opposite 
shores of each river, few of which yet being located, 
we shall be compelled by examination of the topog- 
raphy of the land across the river, to assume. It 
would be a mistake to act in this matter, solely with 
reference to the convenience of people residing upon 
this island ; due regard is to be had to convenient 
access to the City for those residing elsewhere, and 
doing business here. The general movement of 
travel will be longitudinal, as well because the neces- 
sities of the people will call them to the denser part 



48 



of the city as because the steep hills along the rivers 
preclude frequent cross-passages. 

The heavier business traffic will naturally seek 
the most accessible and level roads ; the depots for 
commerce will ultimately find accommodations on 
the shores of the rivers and on the comparatively 
level land contiguous to them. The more elevated 
surfaces will be less subdivided, and will be crowned 
with elegant suburban residences. This may as well 
be at once recognized, and efforts to force these 
picturesque elevations into city lots, abandoned. 

The longitudinal avenues for moving the heavier 
traffic through the whole extent of this portion of the 
island cannot, by reason of the intervening highlands, 
well be more than three ; one of which will be imme- 
diately on the shore of each river, a few feet above 
high tide, and the other will generally follow the 
line of Kingsbridge road. These avenues should be 
of ample width and of light grades. 

Avenues for traffic across the island, and for pas- 
sage of persons and things from Westchester to the 
North river and Jersey, should be provided at each 
opening of the hills ; and it may, at some remote day, 
be found necessary to provide one or more tunnels 
across the island from river to river ; this will, with 
the water-ways on each side of the island, furnish 
the needed convenient facilities for the business 
movements of this part of the city. The act of 1860, 
appointing the Washington Heights Commission, ex- 
pressly provides that nothing in it shall authorize the 



49 

closing of the Tenth avenue, or of the Kingsbridge 
road, or of the Bloomingdale road. 

A street should at once be laid across from Tubby 
Hook to the exterior street on the Harlem river. 
The opening in the hills at this point must continue 
to be of growing importance ; it affords the only 
good opportunity for a street of traflSc between Man- 
hattanville and the Spuyten Duyvil. A street has 
already been laid out on the map of a private estate 
at this place, which it is claimed is public by reason 
of dedication and use. If this street is perpetuated, 
it should be widened, on its southerly side. Imme- 
diately south of this street another street may be laid, 
that will continue in a straight line from river to 
river, while the existing street only runs from the 
Hudson to the Kingsbridge road, and at this point 
bend will probably be necessary. 

The act of April 14, 1852, provided for a per- 
manent exterior street along the shore of the Harlem 
river, between the Sound and the Hudson river. 
This street has been laid out, under authority of the 
Common Council, of 70 feet in width ; this width 
will be found insufficient, and some changes will 
probably be required in its line. This exterior 
street will mainly run upon the land covered with 
water, along the shore of the Harlem river, the 
ownership of which is vested in the corporation of 
the city. 

As the effect of the filling on this land may 
obstruct the channel of the river by forcing the loose 
7 



50 



mud out from the shore into the channel, the erection 
of a continuous line of bulkhead may be found ne- 
cessary before the street is filled in. The bulkhead 
line lies quite near the shore, no piers being allowed 
by reason of the narrowness of the channel. 

The law prescribes that a road shall run from the 
"northerly portion of the 6th and 7th avenues, in 
a generally northerly or north-westerly direction, 
upon the easterly or Harlem river side of the city] 
as far north as the Commissioners may determine; 
thence, in a generally westerly direction to or near 
the Hudson river, and thence in a generally south- 
erly and southeasterly direction, along the westerly 
or Hudson river side of the city, until such road or 
public drive shall enter the Park at or near the junc- 
tion of the Bloomingdale road, 8th avenue and 59th 
street." There is nothing in this language to pre- 
vent this road being laid along the river shore; but, 
for reasons that appear conclusive, when the objects 
to be attained are considered, and for the purpose of 
affording opportunities for the most advantageous 
improvement of the lands, it should be laid on the 
highlands, conforming in grade and line much to the 
natural surface of the land; it may be moderately 
circuitous, but direct where the land will admit, 
with grades not over one in twenty, and of this 
steepness only occasionally; it should be generally 
located so that it will be some 100 or 200 feet 
interior from the line where the marked declivity 
towards the river begins, or below this line and on 



51 

some of the flworable benches of the declivity, 
according as circumstances favor ; the general idea 
being to keep it where the view will be contin- 
uously fine, and to afford opportunities for favorable 
villa lots on each side of the drive, where the 
breadth of the table land is sufficient to justify its 
being divided by an avenue. It would be weari- 
some to state the details of this line of drive, or the 
thousand circumstances that should enter into the 
consideration of its location and construction. It 
should not, I think, be limited to the area south of 
Tubby Hook, but should extend above the proposed 
canal to the bridges that are to cross the Spuyten 
Duyvil, whether the present King's, or some one or 
more other bridges, and thence around the high hill 
at the confluence of the Hudson with the Spuyten 
Duyvil. The drive need not at present be, necessa- 
rily, worked of its full width throughout the whole 
line ; in actual working it should conform to the 
conditions of the land, and, so far as practicable, to 
the convenience of existing proprietorships and 
settlements. The land to be taken for the road 
should generally be of equal width throughout, for 
uniformity and for convenience of adjusting the 
slopes of its sides to those of adjacent land ; but the 
actual road- way may, for economy in construction 
and maintenance, and for tastefulness, well vary in 
width according to varying circumstances ; this ar- 
rangement will always admit of an increase of width 



52 



of the travelled road, without the further taking of 
land to meet the exigencies of future years. 

The table land from 155th street up towards Fort 
George, east of the Kingsbridge road, will require 
for its development and readily admit of several 
longitudinal streets, as also will the land north of 
Fort George, These areas will ultimately be sub- 
divided and more compactly built. In our times, 
streets are used not only for traffic and travel, 
but underneath their surface are carried, by the au- 
thority of the law, the channels of sewerage and 
drainage and of gas and water. However irregular 
the lines of ownership of land may now be, they 
will, sooner or later adjust themselves to the lines of 
the streets and roads when these are designated and 
defined ; the necessity for the outlet of travel and of 
drainage will compel this. The owner of land on 
the brow of the hill must, if there is no public way 
through which he can drain his laud to the river, 
find some way to drain it across the adjacent lands 
of his neighbor below him. 

This may be tolerated in farm lands, and in the 
case of the drainage of the rain fall, but where the 
discharges of domestic sewerage are to be provided 
for, adequate legislation must be had to permit the 
laying on established lines, main drains and sewers, 
gas and water pipes from streets over adjacent lands. 
The frequency of the streets in the older parts of the 
city provides abundant ways for sewers without cross- 



53 

ing private property. Great obstacles, however, already 
exist to drainage where the streets have not been 
opened and worked. 

The principle that should govern in the determina- 
tion of the number and extent of streets and ways, 
is, tliat where they are required for public conveni- 
ence, or where there is a considerable settlement or 
tendency to settle, whether in large or small tracts, 
it should be aided and encouraged by the working 
of proper means of access. 

In presenting a plan for this part of the city, it by 
no means follows that all the streets laid down on the 
plan are to be worked immediately. There are, 
however, over a hundred miles of streets now on the 
plan of the city that have not been worked, and 
should not be, until population requires them for use. 

It would be unwise to exercise the power of open- 
ing and working streets before they are needed; 
the owners interested should not be required to 
advance the moneys to pay the necessary expenses, 
long before a compensating use can be made of the 
property. These expenses are often considerable, 
and, if made before the property is usable, are in 
the light of advances of money without interest, and 
to owners of small means, they are often oppressive. 
The owners of adjacent property may generally be 
relied on as the best _'udges of the necessity of 
opening and working those ways that are more 
especially intended for the accommodation of the 
neighborhood. 



54 



All those roads, streets, squares and places that are 
ultimately to exist, should be indicated in line and 
grade on a comprehensive plan and put on file to be 
aftervyards opened and worked as occasion requires. 
The course and direction of the streets should be de- 
termined with reference to the probable currents and 
volume of travel from the city below, from the future 
cities that are to crown the opposite Jersey heights, 
the fields of Westchester, and from the waters that are 
to bear that portion of commerce that is to seek ac- 
commodation at this end of the island. The Spuyten 
Duyvil and the Harlem River are already spanned 
by several bridges — others will be established as po- 
pulation thickens on their shores. No less than seven 
bridges, with and without draws already exist across 
these waters and another is in progress. Most of 
the avenues of the city leading to the Harlem River, 
will, ultimately be carried over on bridges to the 
mainland, and this stream and its connections with 
the Hudson will, within a few years, run "a silent 
highway " in the midst of a dense city, occupying 
each of its sides, like the Seine or the Thames. 

The conveniences for supplying cities with water 
and gas and with the means of sewerage and drain- 
ing, are intimately connected vv^ith their systems of 
public ways. 

The drainage and sewerage of the city, thus far, 
has been often unscientific in plan and arrangement, 
and much of it very unskillful in execution ; with the 
improvements of the last ten years in the science, it 



55 

would be inexcusable if this part of the city were to 
be left without the best possible provision in this 

respect. 

A plan for a city intended to include arrangements 
for the most important public necessities, would pro- 
vide for slaughter houses, markets, and dumping- 
grounds, and the mode of disposing of the refuse of 
the city. The law, however, imposes no such duty 
upon the Board, and as their location depends so 
much upon questions of private ownership, it is 
scarcely worth while here to do more than mention 
them. 

The discharge of the sewage into a river like the 
Harlem, may perhaps be tolerated for a few years, but 
the time is not distant when other arrangements will 
be required, and they should be now contemplated. 
In London, enormous expenditures arc now being 
made to free the city from the dangers and annoy- 
ances arising from the discharge of the waste into 
the Thames. Few have any idea of the immense 
bulk of the refuse of a large city. Our waters have, 
thus far, mainly received that of this city, but that 
mode of disposing of it has already gone on too 
long, and will soon be, if it has not already be- 
come, the occasion of serious impediments to the 
navigation of the waters of the city. 

Some idea of the quantity of the refuse of ancient 
cities and of the inartificial method of disposing of it, 
will be gained from a brief extract from a late work 
by the Hon. G. P. Marsh : 



£6 



"Every traveller in Italy is familiar witli Monte 
Tesiaccio, the mountain of potsherds, at Rome ; but 
this deposit, large as it is, shrinks into insignificance 
when compared with masses of similar origin in the 
neighborhood of older cities. The castaway pot- 
tery of ancient towns in Mngna Grecia composes 
strata of such extent and thickness that they have 
been dignified with the appellation of the ceramic 
formation. The Nile, as it slowly changes its bed, 
exposes, on its banks, masses of the same material, so 
vast that the population of the world during the 
whole historical period would seem to have chosen 
this valley as a general deposit for its broken vessels." 

" In the neighborhood of the Nile manures are little 
employed, the domestic waste, which would elsewhere 
be employed to enrich the soil, is thrown out in 
vacant places near the town. Hills of rubbish are 
thus piled up which astonish the traveller almost as 
much as the solid pyramids themselves." 

" The heaps of ashes and other household refuse 
collected on the borders and within the limits of 
Cairo were so large that the removal of them by 
Ibrahim Pacha has been looked upon as one of the 
great wonders of the age." 

"The soil, near the cities, the street sweepings of 
which are spread upon the ground as manure, is per- 
ceptibly raised by them and by other efforts of human 
industry, and in spite of all efforts to remove the 
waste, the level of the ground on which large towns 
stand is constantly elevated. The present streets of 



57 



Rome are twenty feet above those of the ancient 
city." 

" The Appian Way, between Rome and Albano, 
Avhen cleared out, a few years ago, was found buried 
four or five feet deep, and the fields along the road 
were elevated nearly or quite as much. The floors 
of many churches in Italy, not more than six or seven 
centuries old, are now three or four feet below the 
adjacent streets, though it is proved, by excavations, 
that they were built as many feet above them." 

The Act of 1865 devolves upon the Board the 

duty of continuing a Drive from 155th street to the 

junction of the Bloomingdale Road, 8th avenue and 

59th street, " such road to follow the course of the 

' Bloomingdale Road below 106th street, whenever 

' the Commissioners shall deem such course advan- 

' tageous. The said Commissioners shall determine 

' the location, width, courses, winding, and grades 

' of said road and public drive, and may widen the 

' Bloomingdale Road, and determine the grades 

' thereof, and of intersecting streets and avenues, as 

' they may deem it necessary for the perfecting of 

' such road or public drive." 

From 106th street north, the location of this 
drive is left discretionary with the Commissioners of 
the Park. Near this street the Eleventh avenue 
crosses the Bloomingdale Road. An inference may 
be drawn from the terms of the law, that the drive 
is not to follow the Bloomingdale Road above this 
point ; at all events, the discretion of the Commis- 



58 

sioners is left entirely undirected as to following 
,tlie Bloomingdale Road above 106th street, while 
there is somethins: more than an intimation in the 
law, that it should be followed, below 106th street, 
" wherever the Commissioners shall deem such course 
advantageous." 

The Eleventh avenue has already been opened, 
100 feet wide, up to 144th street, and cessions of 
portions of its width have been made to 148th street, 
leaving but a short distance to be opened to reach 
153d street, where it strikes the grounds of the 
Trinity Cemetery, through which the drive following 
the avenue will naturally pass. Below 106th street, 
the main questions for the Board to determine will 
be, what divergences from the line of the Blooming- 
dale Road shall be made, and the width of the pro- 
posed drive. Broadway has been laid out, by several 
Acts, of a width of 75 feet up to 86th street ; beyond 
that, it is now merely a country road, discontinuable 
at any time by act of the Common Council. 

A glance at the map will show that if the drive 
were to follow the Bloomingdale Road from 86lh to 
105th street, it would bring its easterly line very near 
the line of the Tenth avenue, at some points within 
67 feet of that avenue, and so near as to render 
the course of that road between these two streets 
disadvantageous for the drive. If the Blooming- 
dale Road between these points, were not already 
where it is, no one would deem it proper to place it 
there. The owners of fronts on the road may deem 



59 

it desirable that tlie new drive follow tlie line 
of the road, and if a different location is deemed 
detrimental to their property, it will be because the 
new drive will take the travel, and diminish the 
importance of the Bloomingdale Road ; if it takes 
the travel, it will be because it is the better route. 
If it is the better route, it is sufficient reason why it 
should be adopted. The drive might follow the 
course of the Bloomingdale Road from 59th street 
to 71st street, thence take the Tenth Avenue to 
101st street, and thence cross the Bloomingdale 
Road to the 11th avenue. The effect of this would 
be the abandonment of a still greater portion of 
the line of the Bloomingdale Road, a still wider 
departure from the intimation of the law that the 
line of the road below 106th street was to be fol- 
lowed. 

On the other hand, perhaps, it would be better to 
locate the drive on the course of the Bloomingdale 
Road from 59th street to 86th street — thus preserving 
the diagonal line of the street, the property on which, 
in a rectangular city, is generally considered as of pe- 
culiar value — thence at about equal distances between 
the 10th and 11th avenues, up to where it would 
strike the present line of Bloomingdale Road, at 
about 105th street, thence on the line of the Bloom- 
ingdale Road to the 11th avenue, and thence along 
the 11th avenue to 155th street. The number and 
value of the buildings on the line that will be affected 
is inconsiderable. 



60 

The Eleventh avenue, as the grades of the streets 
and avenues of this part of the city are now estab- 
lished, occupies high ground for nearly the whole 
distance from 106th street to Manhattanville valley, 
and from this valley to 155th street. From this ave- 
nue, the grades, as now fixed, fall towards the river ; 
some work has already been done upon it, and it 
is probably the line that can be worked with more 
economy and expedition than any other. It is also 
the nearest avenue to the river that it is practicable 
to take. The 12th avenue lies to a great extent 
under the bank, is near to, or occupied by the rail- 
road, and will be less and less attractive as those 
classes of business that generally cling to the river 
move upwards. The land of the ilth avenue being 
already owned by the city, for nearly its whole 
length, the cost of opening a new avenue between it 
and the 12th avenue will be avoided. 

In locating this drive, it will be found neces- 
sary to look at the ground in this district as it now 
is, and as it will be when existing legal requirements 
have been carried out, and the surface reduced to its 
final shape. It may not be amiss to say, in passing, 
that this district affords an exemplification of the 
peculiar infelicity of the plan on which it has been 
laid out. There is no doubt that a wise regard to 
the public convenience, the interests of the property 
owners, and the economy of expenditures, both pub- 
lic and private, require a re-examination and re- 
arrangement of the plan of portions of the territory 



61 



west of the lOth avenue, north of 72d street, to 
125th street, and west of the 8th avenue, north of 
125th street to 155th street. 

Should the line of Broadway, the Bloomingdale 
Road, and the 11th avenue, be approved for the 
drive, it will be rendered attractive by many exist- 
ing improvements. On it the Orphan Asylum has a 
front line of 238.5 feet ; the Lunatic Asylum a front of 
over 1,500 feet, and Trinity Cemetery a front of 460 
feet on each side. The grounds of these institutions 
will probably for a long time remain open space?, 
and be important ornaments to the drive. If the 
angles formed by the intersection of the line with 
the 8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th avenues should be taken 
for public use, symmetrically arranged, and so re- 
stricted as to their use as to prevent their becoming 
objectionable, they will afford fit space for monu- 
mental ornamentation, become architectural centres 
or nuclei for public edifices, add much to the variety 
and magnificence of the drive, and continue on 
Broadway the succession of parks and places that 
are now strung along its line — the Battery, the 
Bowling Green, the City Hall Park, Union and Mad- 
ison Squares, the Central Park. 

With respect to the width of the Sixth and 
Seventh avenues, from the Farmers' and Mariners' 
Gates of the Park, to the Harlem River, the Board 
has no discretion, both being fixed by law. It is 
otherwise with the drive from the Merchants' Gate 
of the Park to and ' around the north end of the 



G2 

Island, as well as with the streets and roads above 
155th street; of these, the width is to be determined 
by the Commissioners of the Park, and upon no por- 
tion of their dutj will there be a greater variety of 
sentiment. We are so much influenced by what we 
are accustomed to see, that the constant tendency 
will be to determine this question by what is imme- 
diately around us. Fortunately there are at this 
moment such marked examples of large expenditure 
to rectify the mistakes of former years in the width 
of the streets of this city, that liberal views will 
readily be entertained. The intelligent determina- 
tion of the width of an avenue for travel, and of the 
proper material for its surface, involves the consider- 
ation of the present and prospective volume of travel 
upon it, the character of this travel, the relative 
proportion of the various classes of it, whether for 
man on foot or in vehicles, or for traffic or pleasure, 
and the class of traffic, in fact the whole subject of 
the circulation of the population of the city. The 
ventilation of the whole city and the light and air of 
its buildings are also to be considered in fixing the 
width of its streets. On the upper part of this Island 
there is no doubt that the avenues running lengthwise 
should be the most capacious — the cross streets acting 
as so many feeders to them. 

The crowd already upon the existing avenues 
shows that as population increases they will be in- 
adequate — not perhaps that they are too narrow, but 
of insufficient number. When the Island is entirely 



63 

built over, and this city, literally the metropolis — the 
mother city — of cities already springing up on its 
confines, the cross thoroughfares that are the ter- 
mini of bridges and ferries will become more im- 
portant and more thronged ; but it is not probable 
the travel up and down tlie city will ever be much 
less, proportionately to the cross travel, than at 
present. The tendency of population is towards the 
upper end of the city, and Westchester county, which 
is accessible by bridges in all weather, thus so loca- 
ting population as to increase the use of the longi- 
tudinal streets. While we are especially impressed 
from the remarkable tendency of people to collect in 
cities, with the necessity of a large provision in the 
width of ways, it is not to be forgotten that the error 
may be easily fallen into, of making them too wide. 
The desideratum is to find the proper width for the 
particular circumstances. The need in a great city 
like ours for storage accommodation is such that 
public places that are left open and unused, are 
immediately seized upon for private purposes. 

For example, the slips and the streets along the 
river are occupied with all sorts of articles, such 
as lumber, timber, iron boilers, anchors, chains, 
and other heavy merchandise. It is, of course, 
cheaper for merchants to store these articles in the 
streets than to hire places for them ; but this sort of 
use of streets is not to be provided for in determin- 
ing their width — they are not places for storage, but 
for circulation. The law of the street is motion, not 
rest, and theoretically the man who stops with his 



6^ 

team in the street violates the law, as does he who 
stands upon the sidewalk. If one desire rest for 
himself or his goods he must find it outside of the 
channels appropriated to travel, the encumbrance of 
which the law does not permit. We are now dis- 
cussing the street as a legal institution, and not as 
respects the possibilities of its ornamentation. In 
tropical countries, much more live in the streets than 
is possible in our climate, provision for or against it 
is therefore unnecessary. 

We occasionally in some country city see a wide 
street ornamented with umbrageous trees, having 
spaces of green interposed in its area, the portion 
used for travel being very limited. This arrange- 
ment is only possible where thronging population 
and crowding commerce are not at liberty to overlay 
and smother the laws that are made to secure the 
legitimate use of the public streets. 

It would seem inexpedient at any rate until some 
better permanent administration of our streets is 
secured, not to attempt these fanciful arrangements 
to any great extent in a commercial city, under our 
form of government, where pecuniary interests are 
likely to be promoted by facile representatives, 
allowing their constituents the use of public pro- 
perty to the injury of those who pay rents and 
taxes, as is instanced in the case of railroads oc- 
cupying streets that have been graded and pre- 
pared, as it were, for and without expense to them, 
without any compensation for franchises worth mil- 



65 



lions; in the stacks of lumber, timber, etc., that encum- 
ber the public ways, and in the numerous permissions 
granted by the Common Council to use the public 
walks, streets and parks for private advantage, that 
lately have become so frequent as to have secured a 
general ordinance to facilitate them. 

It is to be borne in mind that every additional foot 
in width of a street adds proportionately to the cost 
of grading, regulating and paving it, thus laying an 
increased burden upon property owners who pay the 
assessments. 

The system of improving the surface of tlie street 
will depend much on the character of the use to 
which it is to be subjected ; of the approved 
modes of surface construction that which is best 
administered will be found the best. The keeping 
of the street in repair, whether it be of pavement, or 
gravel, or macadamized, requires a large annual out- 
lay ; the waste of material on a largely travelled road, 
except it is paved, is almost incredible, and every 
foot of paved surface beyond the space required for 
convenient use, adds unnecessarily to the annual tax. 

The visitor at Washington can scarcely have failed 
to observe the unnecessary width of its principal 
thoroughfare — Pennsylvania Avenue. This avenue 
is 170 feet in width from house to house. It is said 
that it was the intention of the author of the plan of 
the city to lay out a promenade in the centre of the 
avenue, to be planted with trees, and that an engrav- 
ing is in existence representing this walk. The fol- 
lowing extracts from a late communication of the 
9* 



66 



Mayor of Washington to the Secretary of the Inte- 
rior, shows how the expense of wide streets is re- 
garded : " The adoption of the plan of wide streets 
and avenues was by General Washington, for some 
practical utility, though it may not as yet have been 
developed, and if a way of obviating the difficulty 
could be found without ultimately and permanently 
destroying that plan, it would be a temporary relief, 
and until the utility of wide streets should be devel- 
oped, it would be well to avail ourselves of it." 

" The avenues vary from one hundred and twenty 
to one hundred and sixty feet in width, and the 
streets from eighty to one hundred and forty feet, 
the average being ninety feet, costing more than 
double the amount of streets of the same length 
and more moderate dimensions, and as it has not 
grown in the usual manner, but has necessarily 
been created in a short time, the pressure for 
improvement has been burdensome to its citizens." 
The Fourth Avenue, above 13 2d Street, was several 
years since widened to 140 feet, to accommodate the 
railroads. The other avenues of the city are gener- 
ally 100 feet wide. Market Street, in Philadelphia, 
is 100 feet, and Broad Street, in the same city, 113 
feet wide ; the other streets of that city are generally 
50 to 6Q feet wide, and many of the squares are sub- 
divided by small streets or alleys. Commonwealth 
Avenue, in Boston, has been lately laid out of a 
large width, and planted with rows of trees. Brook- 
lyn has its Atlantic Avenue, of 120 feet in width, 
Chicago, its Michigan Avenue, 120 feet in width. 



67 

The Neva Perspective, in St. Petersburg, one oT the 
finest streets in Europe, is 130 feet broad. Unter 
den Linden, in Berlin, is about 300 feet wide. The 
width of several of the Boulevards of Paris have 
already been stated. 

In forming a judgment on the question of the 
width of the drive, it will be well not to leave out of 
view the fact, that as the city railroads have been 
thrust into streets where they should not go, they 
are quite as likely to be placed upon this drive, in 
spite of all remonstrances and opposition. Is it not 
better, then, to give this drive such width as will 
accommodate a railroad, if it should be forced into it, 
rather than leave it of a width that will render its 
use difficult and inconvenient when the railroad is 
placed there. 

The width of the avenue being determined, the 
mode of its subdivision and grades becomes prom- 
inent ; the width of the carriage-way, the walks, the 
lines of trees, the courtyards, etc., the mode of sur- 
face drainage, the sewerage, and the lighting will 
come up for settlement ; the conclusions arrived at 
will depend much upon the views that we take of 
the character of the use to which this drive is to be 
devoted. It is not likely that it will be practicable 
to exclude from it vehicles of traffic. The part of 
the city west of the park through which this drive 
is to pass, will probably be built with dwellings of a 
costly character, and these, after having served their 
day and generation, will give way, as in other locali- 
ties, to the pressure of business. If the drive is made 



6& 



of adequate width, it will be easj to adjust its sub- 
divisions to meet the changes that time may show to 
be desirable. 

It is probable that a change in the bulkhead line 
above 155th street will be found necessary, in order 
that the landings may be made by boats ; at many 
points the ground is bare at the bulkhead line, at 
low water. 

The subject of the nomenclature of the streets is 
an interesting one, and will early require attention. 

No public pleasure ground of the city, except the 
Battery, lies adjacent to the river. 

The exceeding picturesqueness of the ground 
along the Hudson River, both above and below 
155th street, much of which is well grown with fine 
park trees, affords an opportunity to supply what 
will shortly be a want in a part of the city against 
which it cannot be urged that sufficient space has 
already been taken for parks. This ground need not 
be very extensive ; one of the points jutting out into 
the river, cut off from the hills by the line of the 
Hudson Hiver Railroad, that from the slope of the 
land, affords a convenient opportunity to bridge 
over the railroad, and a safe and agreeable access 
from the hill to the river side would be suitable. 
The view of the river and the opposite shore is 
unsurpassed, and a convenient access to the water 
will do very much towards the encouragement of 
swimming schools, boating and other aquatic sports. 

Fort Washington Point, occupying about eight 
acres of land, with a portion of the land to the east 



6D 

of the railroad, offers, perhaps, the most favorable 
opportunity to establish a Park of this character : it 
would immediately become a place of resort, aud the 
exterior street should be so arranged as to continue 
the connection of the Park with the river without 
the intervention of any bulkhead. At least two 
of the numerous commanding summits lying still 
further to the north should be secured for public 
grounds. 

It would be desirable to establish, in the neighbor- 
hood of the city, a Fair Ground, for the periodical 
public exhibition of agricultural and mechanical 
products from all parts of the State and Nation. It 
could, under proper regulations, be arranged to serve 
the purposes of a market for horses, cattle, sheep and 
other living animals, for use or consumption. 

The growth of the city will, within a few years, 
push the live stock markets that now adorn the 
Fifth Avenue beyond the limits of population, and 
the facilities which it is hoped will soon be afforded 
by railroads will make them convenient of access if 
located either at the extreme northerly part of the 
Island or in Westchester county. Establishments 
of this character, even if they look simply to the im- 
pitovement of agriculture, are more wisely located in 
the immediate vicinity of a large city than in the 
country. Where one person would visit them if 
situated in the interior, thousands from the country, 
temporarily drawn to the city on business or plea- 
sure, would count much upon the instruction and 
entertainment to be derived from them ; such estab- 



70 



lishments should be planted not too near, but in 
convenient proximity to the localities where masses 
of men congregate. 

Within the limits of these Fair Grounds might be 
arranged a coui'se for horse exercise. There is a 
very large class of gentlemen in this city devoted to 
riding and driving, including many enthusiasts on 
the subject of improving the breed of horses ; the 
large sums of money they are willing to pay for 
animals of peculiar points of breeding, shows how 
strong is their interest in their favorite animal. By 
the census of 1860, it appears that there were in this 
country, in round numbers, 7,300,000 horses. The 
services of this class of animals to man have long 
rendered them objects of attention and culture, and 
whatever facilities can be properly furnished to aid 
in their improvement should not be lightly regarded. 

As the movement of population up town will soon 
require for other uses the roads that have for many 
years served as a race-course, some other public 
road will be seized on where horses can be exercised 
and fast-driving can be indulged. It is vain to argue 
against such establishments from the abuses that may 
attend' them. 

A course for riding and driving at a higher rate of 
speed than would be safe on the streets and roads of 
the city, would be one effectual mode of preventing 
dangerous driving elsewhere ; but should not such 
establishments be the creations of private enterprise ? 
It will, I think, on consideration, be found that the 
necessary expenditure for a Course of this charac- 



71 



ter would be so considerable as to prevent its use, 
except by those whose wealth enables them to meet 
the required dues ; others would still seek, on some 
public road, the opportunity to indulge in their 
favorite sport. 

In the Bois de Boulogne is the race-course Long- 
champ, with pavilions of different classes, of great 
extent, and fitting arrangements for the accom- 
modation of crowds. This Course, under the direc- 
tion of the Society for encouraging the breed of 
horses in France, and under the supervision of the 
officers of the Wood — is frequented by immense num- 
bers of people. It is one of the most popular enter- 
tainments of Paris. The Ascot, Derby, and Epsom 
Courses, in England, maintained for many years, 
show how general is the taste for this class of enter- 
tainment, and how permanent is its hold on all 
classes. A piece of road, disconnected for the 
present, from the Main Drive, might be appropriated 
for this purpose for the next few years, and until ap- 
proaching population requires it for other uses. It is 
not, perhaps, too early to consider the question of 
purchase by the city of a large tract of ground in 
Westchester County to be devoted to these classes of 
objects. 

The owners of property that I have had an oppor- 
tunity to see personally, generally express themselves 
gratified with the prospect of having the long de- 
ferred work of laying out the northerly portion of 
the Island satisfactorily accomplished. They regard 
the whole subject as of great importance, in acting 



T2 



upon which it is quite probable the views of private 
owners will to some extent of necessity be subordi- 
nated to requirements of the public interests. 

The convenience of travel will, in my opinion, be 
subserved by opening and widening Harlem Lane 
from 110th street, near 6th avenue, to Manhattan 
street, and by widening that street. There is no 
power conferred on the Board for this improvement, 
but it would be so manifestly an advantage to the 
neighborhood, that the requisite amendment to the 
law would be readily obtained. 

By the Act of 1860 it is made the duty of the 
Board to lay out a new avenue, 100 feet in width, to 
h<5 called the New Ninth Avenue, along to the east of 
the grounds of the Convent of the Sacred Heart. It 
seems to me that the termination of the avenue, 
as fixed by the Act, might be improved by open- 
ing it into the Kingsbridge Road, somewhere near 
Breakneck Hill, by means of which convenient 
access to the plateau on the hill, to the north part of 
the Island, and across the city, could always be had. 
To effect this, an alteration in the law would be re- 
quired. 

As power to make applications for opening the 
streets in the district above 155th street, and for 
opening and widening several streets below that 
street is vested in this Board, I think it exceedingly 
desirable to apply to the Legislature for such amend- 
ments to the law as will facilitate a reduction of the 
expenses of this class of proceedings, and to get rid of 
the gross abuses that have long fastened upon them. 



73 

The manner in which any plan that may be pre- 
sented by the Board will be received by the public, 
depends much upon the evidence it bears of an in- 
telligent, comprehensive, appreciation of the various 
subjects it presents. To ensure the approval of pres- 
ent and future times, it must comprise something 
more than a succession of regular figures, such 
as instinct leads the industrious insect to arrange for 
its habitation and storehouse. It would be easy to 
write an essay that would stimulate and encourage 
the imagination with visions of parks, groves, terraces, 
fountains, statuary and palatial residences ; we have, 
however, to deal with practical things and not excite 
unattainable expectations. Money will be needed, 
and it should, as far as is possible, be required at 
such times, and in such amounts as will not be bur- 
densome, and so applied as to give no just occasion 
for criticism. While sufficient time should be taken 
to thoroughly mature a plan, it is to be remembered 
that delays are prejudicial to the interests of proprie- 
tors as well as to the convenience of the public ; 
until the lines and grades of the streets and avenues 
are determined, improvements will be retarded. 
The unsettled plan operates as notice to proprie- 
tors that if they proceed to improve, itjs at the risk 
of waste of their outlay. This state of things ought 
not to exist one day longer than is necessary, and 
energy and intelligence should combine to ter- 
minate it. The tendency of modern contrivances 
for transportation seems to be to facilitate the mass- 
10 



74 



ing of population in cities. New York, preeminently 
commercial, is rapidly becoming a great manufactur- 
ing centre of the country, population presses upon its 
territory, and with convenience for rapid travel 
through its extent, will very soon wholly occupy it. 
For the want of convenient means of reaching the 
upper part of the island in the same time that points 
thirty miles further off can be reached, population 
is compelled to seek the towns in the country. 
Tarrytown can, by the cars, be reached from Cham- 
bers street in less time than it requires to get by 
the horse-cars to Harlem River Bridge, and numer- 
ous other places, similarly situated, receive accessions 
of population from the city because the means of 
rapid movement to desirable situations on the island 
are not provided. This is a subject of permanent 
interest to the city, and to owners of property 
that is not occupied because it cannot be got at. 
Something more than the accommodations now fur- 
nished by horse-cars must be had. 

If we assume the population of the city, in 1865, 
at one million, which is probably less than its actual 
number, and that the increase is to continue in the 
same proportion as it has for fifty years past, the 
year 1880 will close with two millions people on 
this island. On this assumption, the territory south 
of 135th street will be built over in ten years, and 
all south of Kingsbridge in five years more, 
even on the supposition that the north part of the 
city is to be as densely occupied as the more central 



75 



part. There are doubtless portions of the marshy 
grounds on the Harlem River that will for a time be 
left unoccupied in the flight of population. The 
settlement of the island is not by the regular build- 
ing up of entire successive streets, the avenues are 
generally first filled, and settlements radiate from 
centres, like Harlem, Yorkville and Bloomingdale. 
The wise exercise of the powers of the Board, on 
the subjects under consideration, will do much to- 
wards accommodating this rapid growth, a com- 
modious system of ways will provide unobstructed 
circulation for this increasing tide of human exist- 
ence, and enhance the comforts of daily life, by 
rendering habitations of the people more salubrious 
and agreeable. 

New York, December, 1865. 

Respectfully submitted, 

ANDW. H. GREEN, 

Comiotroller of the Park. 



LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 



014 221 583 4 ^^ 



